Economic contribution

Globally, Creative Industries excluding software and general scientific Research and Development are said to have accounted for around 4% of the world's economic output in 1999, which is the last year for which comprehensive figures are currently available. Estimates of the output corresponding to scientific Research and Development suggest that an additional 4-9% might be attributable to the sector if its definition is extended to include such activities, though the figures vary significantly between different countries.
Taking the UK as an example, in the context of other sectors, the Creative Industries make a far more significant contribution to output than Hospitality or Utilities and deliver four times the output due to Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. In terms of employment and depending on the definition of activities included, the sector is a major employer of between 4-6% of the UK's Working Population, though this is still significantly less than employment due to traditional areas of work such as Retail and Manufacturing.
Within the Creative Industries sector and again taking the UK as an example, the three largest sub-sectors are Design, Publishing and Television/Radio. Together these account for around 75% of revenues and 50% of employment.
The complex Supply Chains in the Creative Industries sometimes make it challenging to calculate accurate figures for the Gross Value Added by each sub-sector. This is particularly the case for the service-focused sub-sectors such as Advertising, whereas it is more straightforward in product-focused sub-sectors such as Crafts. Not surprisingly, perhaps, competition in product-focused areas tends to be more intense with a tendency to drive the production end of the supply chain to become a Commodity Business.
There may be a tendency for publicly-funded Creative Industries development services to inaccurately estimate the number of creative businesses during the mapping process. There is also imprecision in nearly all tax code systems that determine a person's profession, since many creative people operate simultaneously in multiple roles and jobs. Both these factors mean that official statistics relating to the Creative Industries should be treated with caution.